Monthly Archives: August 2015

On 10th August, 2015 the Warwick volunteers started the morning class teaching Probability. We asked them to teach probability to the Laksh teachers because they often find it difficult when they teach it to the kids. Therefore they planned the morning lesson on this topic and explained probability very well. One way that they explained probability was by using lots of simple examples such as, the day after Tuesday will be Wednesday, etc. Then they explained how likely something is to happen with words like impossible, certain and even odds. They also explained different types of probability such as Theoretical probability and Experimental probability. We played a probability game with the teachers and students as well. In the game we pointed to the corners of room and named them likely, unlikely, impossible, certainly and even odds, and then we asked lots question and got the teachers to think about the probability of the question and then go into the correct corner. They enjoyed it lots and they also asked questions regarding probability to each other.

English lesson started with reading and how to make reading fun. They demonstrated first how to make the reading fun and then asked to the teachers to do the same. This was done by them asking the teachers to focus on their expressions, voice, instructions, acting and body language. We then played two games during the English lesson. In the first game, one instructor gave instructions to all of us such as, Make the statue of a soldier, etc. In the second game we divided ourselves into two teams and one instructor asked both the teams to make the structure of an object by using their bodies. We really enjoyed it and it was a new memorable technique to make children learn object names in English and Hindi. They are doing this learning by making the structure of object with their bodies. Everybody was engaged in the activity and had lots of fun as well as learnt.

We started the morning class by making greeting cards. We asked the teachers to draw something related to the Laksh project and Laksh farm on the front page of the card. It took an hour to draw the cards and colour them in. Then the Warwick Volunteers explained a game for fun Friday.

Use different shapes and make objects.

They introduced some unseen shapes such as, pentagon, Hexagon, Heptagon and Octagon and some irregular shapes such as, kite and star as well. They also introduced some familiar shapes such as, circle, triangle, rectangle and square. They then asked the teachers to draw some objects by using the shapes. They decided the time constraints depending on how hard the object was to draw. How do we make it more creative and funny? Make it a game. They decided the scoring system for each object which they drew in their note books by using the shapes. The criteria of the scoring system was based on the number of sides of a shape, for example a triangle has three sides so they marked it as 3 marks and the marking system was increased in the same order. There were some conditions for the marking system as well, such as if you use a shape again then you will get only one mark. One more condition was if you used a shape more than ten times then you got zero marks for each additional use. Then they asked the teachers to draw some objects by using the shapes and made sure they followed the instructions very well. The teachers liked it and they were excited to get high marks. They played it very well and organised it in evening classes as well. The students enjoyed it very much too! They looked like they were having lots of fun with the activity. The main idea behind the activity was to try to teach them new shapes as I mentioned above. They also learnt the number of sides and angles of different shapes too. Hence we are trying to teach them with fun activities and trying to encourage them towards studying. The Warwick Volunteering program is really useful for the Laksh teachers and students as well!

As I mentioned in my previous blog about the 2nd batch, we have four volunteers and they have specializations in different subjects. We decided to divide the morning teachers training class into two sessions. One session for Mathematics and the second session for English. Shirin and Jade teach English ; Adam and Giles teach Maths. On Tuesday morning they started the morning class with their introduction and they asked some questions to the Laksh teachers such as, what do they find difficult to teach the students of Mathematics and English. They started maths class first and taught additions. They taught how to arrange the numbers using the place value such as, unit digit, tens, hundreds and thousands. They used different shapes to teach the place value such as, circle for unit, triangle for tens, rectangle for hundreds and pentagon for thousands. Hence, they taught the addition along with shapes.

Jade and Shirin started the English with alphabet song by using the letters. They asked the teachers to pick a letter and pronounce it many times and then say a word beginning with the same letter. The whole idea behind the activity was to correct the pronunciation of letters and increasing vocabulary as well. After that they organised the conversation activity among the teachers such as, Doctor and patient , customer and shopkeeper, friends calling and customer to waiter etc. They organised the activity to improve the communication skills and confidence of the teachers. They also organised an activity where the teachers complimented each others teaching qualities. We made a circle and asked one person to turn around and the rest said one good thing about him or her.

They worked on reading and listening skills with the teachers and students by using English story books and their school books as well. It was very useful to the teachers and students as well. So the group two is doing amazing things with the Laksh teachers and students as well. We are really enjoying their creative ideas and learning lots of new things everyday

This was the last week of the first batch of Warwick Volunteers and they worked on life skills education in morning classes. They started on Monday with the Curriculum Vitae. They explained the uses of CV’s and how to write them. They taught the basic points that form the foundation of writing a CV. All the teachers wrote their own CV using the computers. They wrote their personal information along with educational qualifications and work experience as well. The next day they started to write covering letters for jobs. It was hard to learn for them because they are not used to writing covering letters but they seemed very excited to learn it. They worked on interview skills as well. They asked their interest of working and taught them how to be prepared for interviews. It was really interesting to know their job choices after they will finish their study. The whole idea behind this particular lesson plan was to make the teachers more presentable and confident.

I still can not believe the four weeks has gone so quickly. It seems like we met them one week ago. It was really wonderful with the volunteers. We worked very hard with them and our students learnt lots of things from them. Today, they started the morning class with Origami and taught some different things such as: how to make a crown, swan and boat. It was fun day today and everyone had lots of fun. We played volleyball and cricket then had Jalebi and samosas. The Warwick Volunteers said a massive thanks to the Laksh teachers. The volunteers visited all centres to say bye to the students as well.

Thank you very much Puja, Fiona, Matt and Carli for being with us for four weeks. You are adorable and made lots of improvement to our project. We will try to carry on forever what you taught us and improved our system.

3rd August, 2015, we greeted the second batch of the Warwick volunteers. There are four volunteers Mr. Adam Walter, Mr. Giles Carey, Ms. Jade Vidler and Ms. Shirin Shah. They visited all the centres in evening and they were inspired . We started our morning class with the introduction of volunteers. They introduced their name and education. Mr. Adam finished his Economics degree along with Maths post graduation certificate of education, Mr. Giles finished his Mathematics honours, Ms. Jade finished her degree of Childhood, Education and Society and Ms. Shirin Shah finished her degree in Politics and Economics as well. We are very lucky to have them. They settled in very well and seems they are working with the Laksh since a long time. We planned lots of activities to teach the teachers and students as well.